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So this was more of a cheeky little explore than anything planned in advance. A few of us were in the South of France for the Urban Explorer Wedding of the Year, an event that was most definitely epic and involved many many drunken selfies of at least half a dozen drunken explorers (including the Bride and Groom) but hey that's another story and not one for here
The day after we left the Bride and Groom to do Honeymoony type things and took ourselves off on a trip to the local cokeworks/coal miney type place. It isn't epic or awesome but it was a pretty damn fine mooch to end the trip with.
It is a derpy derp and appears to be a popular place to burn out cars but worth a trip anyway
History is limited and in French so here is my best shot at something that vaguely resembles information but however doesn't mean a great deal to me and is probably worth skipping lol!....
The Sainte Marie open pit was a coal mine of the Mining Unit of Tam, H.B.C.M. (Houilleres du Bassin Centre Midi), in the south-western part of France, near Albi. In this area, a large amount of coal has been exploited by Underground mining. This pit was designed in order to exploit the coal remaining around the shaft (Saint Marie shaft) of an old Underground mine situated in the basin of Carmaux.The diameter at the top of the pit was 1200 metres and its final depth was expected to be 300 metres. The first 100 metres were composed of tertiary deposits (clay and sand) which covered the carboniferous formation. The average slope angle of the Tertiary is 37° (without benches) and in the Coal Measures, it was foreseen from 37° to 50° (with benches of 6 metres high) depending on the slope situaüon. At present üme, the depth of the mine is about 160 metres.
Nine coal seams have been mined by Underground working between 1900 and 1984. Different methods have been used depending on the thickness, the dip of the layer and the dimension of the panel. In fact, panels were backfilled, caved or undermined long-wall. The basin of Carmaux is a large synclinal split by a dense network of faults which directions are approximately N 140 E. The dips and the dip directions which was left around the shaft, but, close to the slopes, begin the old exploited long walls. These long walls are at different topographic levels due to the particular structure and have been exploited in panels lined by the faults odented approximately N140.
The first design of the open pit was done by a Standard geotechnical survey; this one has taken into account the geomechanical, hydrogeological, structural Parameters äs well äs the "decohesion", induced by the revival of subsidence due to old Underground mining. However, some mining slopes can locally present risks of slipping induced by old Underground mining.
Anyway here are a few pics
Thanks for looking

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Oblivion State exists as an online forum to allow like minded individuals to share their experiences of Urban Exploration. We do not condone breaking and entering or other criminal activity and advise all members to read the FAQ articles about the forum and urban exploring in general. All posts are the responsibility of the original poster and all images remain copyright to the original photographer